“Obviously, it was an unbelievable experience,” Mayerhofer concurred. “The energy up there is hard to explain. The whole town is all about the race. And the race itself was just unbelievable. You train 8, 9 months, six days a week, then you get to the starting line and you’re like, wow, this is really it.”

Both athletes beat their set goals, with Mayerhofer clocking in at 12:12 and Fernandez turning in a stellar time of 10:59:58 — just slipping under her desired 11:00.

And as far as they’re concerned, this was just the warm-up. Both athletes intend to compete again — and when asked if she’d consider entering next year’s event, Fernandez just laughed.